Higgs Boson.......

http://www.bbc.co.uk/...-environment-17269647
OK so the particle that, in theory, gives everything else mass also has mass, around 125GEV, so does it also give itself mass or, once discovered, are we then looking for the Higgs Higgs, and after the that the Higgs Higgs Higgs? Well you get the picture!

jake made one small error though I am sure it was a mental glitch since he states it correctly further down.

The electromagnetic force is mediated by photons.

BTW Both the Electromagnetic force and the weak force are manifestations of the same underlying "Electroweak Force". These are unified at high energy levels but appear to be separate at lower energies.

So what is mass ? I know it when it hits me, I can feel weight when I carry things around, but as to what it actually is as opposed to how we know it is there and what it is involved in doing, I'm unsure I have a clear picture.

What is mass is really one of the big questions. We know how it interacts with other mass, we know how it responds to forces and we know it is equivalent to energy by the ratio of Einstein's famous equation.

"Similarly Higgs particles would feel the Higgs field which gives them mass."

Ok, so smashing stuff together can turn a virtual particle into a real one, and presumably at the same time a real field turns into a virtual one ?
So whilst those particles that seem to have mass get it from dragging their feet in a real field, the Higgs boson does so from its own virtual field ?

How come not all particles pick up this mass then ?

Any recent good popular science books around to cover this, that are worth a recommendation ? (Not that I don't have piles of unread books around already.)